Uniforms tweaked again

Football, basketball duds to don Trajan font

Kansas University's athletic department is sticking to its commitment, and the team uniforms are getting replaced as a result.

To stay up to date with the university's vision of one unified KU - in both colors and logo - the Jayhawks' sports team will undergo uniform tweaks starting this fall.

That includes football and men's basketball. Football will have new uniforms unveiled soon - perhaps at KU's media day in Lawrence on Aug. 7. Among the changes are the new Trajan KU logo on the helmets, and new numbers to resemble the Trajan font on the jerseys.

Men's basketball will have similar changes on their jerseys this winter.

"The colors will stay the same. The Jayhawk will stay the same," KU associate athletic director Jim Marchiony said. "The font will change to something that is close to what the Trajan font is."

The Jayhawk actually already was changed recently, though it was subtle - the new "KU" logo replaced the older one on the bird's body. The bird kept the same look.

For football, it will be the fourth different uniform since 2001. Terry Allen-coached teams had a royal-blue color through the 2001 season. KU changed to a dark blue when coach Mark Mangino was hired before the 2002 season, then switched to the university-wide "KU blue" before the 2005 season - around the same time adidas replaced Nike as the athletic department's apparel provider.

The university adopted the Trajan font lettering in the summer of 2005, paying $88,900 to LandreyMorrow, a Portland, Ore., firm, to help come up with the design. By that time, KU's football uniforms already were in the works, which is why the block lettering and numbering has been seen on the helmets and jerseys the last two seasons.

The athletic department wasn't forced to follow the university's unified plan, but chose to from the onset. The next step in the evolution of the gameday attire reflects that.

"We committed at the very beginning that we would be on board with the unifying effort that the university was undergoing," Marchiony said. "We committed to them right away. It's not something the university said (to do). This is something we committed very early to the chancellor and everyone involved."

Everyone here is arguing that we should stick to our traditions, but then nobody is able to agree on exactly which traditions we should honor.

Some are arguing that we should pick this random font because it happened to be in use when Danny Manning was playing. Others think we should use Navy blue uniforms with block lettering just because they look tough. Still others persist that we should go back to the days before athletics was a big enough business to worry about branding and find some other random font that was chosen because it was cheap to print on the presses of the day.

IN other words, in terms of fonts, colors, and a nationally recognizable brand, KU has never had any traditions. The uniforms have continuously been changing every few years since the inception of the athletic teams.

The random changing of uniforms, fonts and colors every few years are a factor as to why some people will still mistake our logo for being Kentucky's, or Kent State's, or some other random K school's logo. This is exactly the kind of constant flux that the athletic department is finally taking the steps to stop.

We're not trying to copy Alabama's helmets, or the Denver Broncos current Navy Blue uniforms, or one of our own random aesthletic choices of the past. We are defining our own styles and colors by which everyone in the nation can recognize our brand by looking at any uniform of any of the different sports teams.

Eventually this will become a tradition in it's own right and fifty years down the road fans will be able to argue that KU is classic because they still use the same old Trajan font.

P.S. I don't see what all the uproar is about anyway, I think the Unis will look good on the field.

P.S.S. Anybody complaining about the money spent to license the use of the font obviously hasn't dealt much in the world of graphics. Using a font for the letterheads in your small business is one thing. The makers of the font will probably never find out that you are using their font, and you are too small potatoes for them to care. However, in the case of big business the font makers will go after and sue companies that use their fonts without licensing them, and they charge some pretty ridiculous fees for the licensing. Thus the exhorbitant price of $88,000 for a freakin' font.

The Boston Red Sox-style "circus" font that everybody loves on the basketball jerseys hasn't been around as long as everybody likes to think, but there was a version of it around in 1988 when we won one of our two National Championships, so that means we've had it at least 20 years. I'd say those classic shots of Danny Manning that they show every year on Road to the Final Four shows is a pretty good place to start establishing a nationally recognized, traditional brand, but instead our AD chose to pay somebody $90K to steal Kunztown State's logo.

It's going to be a shame if the 'Hawks pull through this March on the 20th anniversary, and their legacy is written with the Trajan font.

I am not against change when the result is some type of improvement. However, changing something simply for the sake of changing it is completely ludicrous and I will never understand it. When I think of that sissy "KU" on the football helmets I want to scream. It's FOOTBALL! And the basketball jerseys ... Why do these people insist on doing things like this. Tradition. Let's start respecting it. Seriously.

Replacing the block lettering on the football uniforms isn't that bad, but the font on the basketball uniforms is highly identifiable as Kansas. Were there any fans calling for the basketball uniform font to change? Unity is one thing, but just wait until ten years down the line when the Trajan font is out of style. Then what?

I say lets see how they look on the players and on the field and court before we start throwing a fit. I'm not upset by change. I think change is good. My guess is a year from now no one will say a word about this. Unless of course they decide to change it again.

NO! They cannot change the basketball font. That is unique to KU. Why would KU want to go and change the font on the basketball jerseys to reflect the university's marketing? Would people watching the games not put two-and-two together? If they change the font on the basketball jerseys I hope the boosters put a freeze on their donations to the athletic department. Someone get ahold of Dana Anderson and beg him to have them reconsider this change. The football uniforms look dumb but those change every three years anyway.

This was a waste of $80,000 at the time and now the mistake is carrying over into this. I thought we finally had great looking football uni's and now we are changing them again! The new "KU" is about as dorky looking as it can get. You can debate the importance of football uni's (because great players are all that matter) but all sports fans can agree that the uni's should at least look masculine. I haven't seen the uni's (God help us) but the new helmets are pathetic. I agree that if we have to use that stupid new "KU" we should just stick the entire Jayhawk on the helmet.

Change the KU basketball uniforms all you want but leave the tradional Kansas font across the front of the uni alone!

If a person sitting at home watching TV isn't smart enough to realize that "Kansas" or "KU" or a giant Jayhawk on the court is The University of Kansas, then I do not want them as fans or applying to our university anyways.

Absolutely awful and embarrassing. Atrocious and sickening. What will they think of to screw up next? The last two years the football uni's have been the best look we've had in a long long time. We're going to the worst we've EVER had, in my opinion. And as terrible as this look is for football, it will be even worse for basketball. I for one, will NEVER purchase any KU merchandise with the new trajan font. And I regularly purchase several items a year. How many more people feel the same way?
The two football players I've spoken to about this can't stand the new look. Whats next? Black band uniforms? Woops- already done that...

The fuss over uniforms is just craziness...the biggest improvement needed in the football program is in the "W" column. And the biggest improvement needed in the basketball program is increasing "Final Four" and "National Championship" counts. Neither of these improvements dependes on the uniforms, but what is in the uniforms.

Yes, the Trajan KU logo and that football uniform are truly awful... My personal opinion is that the navy football uni's from a few years back were the sharpest I've seen just about anywhere. But forget personal opinions, that football uniform is patently horrible. Embarassing.

Of course the bb uniforms have undergone many changes, but i have a very bad feeling about what they will look like now. I don't see "getting used to" these football unis, and i think bb will probably be just as bad.

This looks worse than any oregon jersey to me. Those OU jerseys may be a little crazy, but this looks more like a flashback to a forgettable 1970s uniform than any sort of improvement. Most high school football uniforms don't look that silly.

It is a jersey. It will not effect the play of the players. The players make the tradition, not the damn jerseys. They could play in practice gear and win a championship and you guys would complain about it. It is your team. Take pride in it because complaining is not going to do anything about it.

I agree with Soloman. I would like to see what it looked like in the 40s-50s. Whatever it is, it should look bold. I love the 88 basketball team, as we all do, but I did not like the style of numbers on the uniforms.

I have hated the Trajan font from the first day i saw we spent way to much money to get it. It has to be the one of the ugliest things that represents KU and now it looks as if everyone that watches us across the country on TV will get to see it in there face with the new awful football and bball jerseys. I wonder if the people up at the top of the ladder have noticed how many fans just flat out don't like the new "KU" logo?

Your know if Mangino goes 10-2 it'll be OK but anything
less and they suck - I always hated Texas Techs uniform
with those stupid looking numerals and now we got'em
too ---- We had good looking uniforms Mangino's first
2-3 years and they've gone downhill ever since! Surely he
didn't sign off on this abortion!

Look, would you rather A) lose and look stupid and win and look stupid OR B) lose and look good and win and look good? I take option B. You can say "winning is all that matters, not the uniforms". Ok, would you want to wear a clown suit to work (sorry to any clowns out there) when you had been wearing a regular suit? I'm sure players and recruits will hate the jerseys too.

Football uniforms should be simple and understated without a ton of flash. The new unis look TERRIBLE. Apparently, KU Athletics is taking strides toward becoming the Barnum & Bailey's Circus of college athletics. Are we going to start having "payless furniture mart" advertisements on our jerseys??

This is just my personal opinion, but changing the uniforms every couple of years (especially to this atrocity) shows that, as an athletic department, you really don't care too much about a team.

On the other hand, I also agree that it really doesn't matter what the uniforms look like as long as the team plays well. I don't think it will be as extreme as flip-flopping to say "i love the new uniforms" if we go 10-2--it will, however, make me forget them.

I just looked at the helmet and jersey and after seeing its application, it's worse than I imagined. The Trajan font is something the athletic department should be using on letterhead ... period. The uniforms should represent the sport. And yes, we all know that the jerseys will not effect the players, and yes we all want more marks in the win column, and yes, the players HELP make the tradition blah blah. But the football jerseys and helmets should look like FOOTBALL not synchronized swimming. And the basketball jerseys are a tradition. Some things you just don't mess with and that is one of them. I'm also curious - how many other D1 schools have matching fonts on all their athletic uniforms and everything else throughout the campus. And one more thing - anyone who has spent money at KU should be having a fit at the ridiculous cost in commissioning the new logo font. Next time just search the internet for crying out loud.

the helmet looks good with the new Trajan logo. The old blocky KU was terrible but since it's tradition you all just love it. I will agree the numbers on the jerseys look terrible and the really small Kansas above them looks stupid as well.

the basketball jerseys on the otherhand - well the verdicts out on that. this article didn't specify whether the names on the back or the Kansas were going to be in Trajan. I took it to mean that the KU logo on the neckline was going to be Trajan, but I really hope they don't use the same numerals as the football jerseys. plus the 88 jersey looks idiotic and illegible but you all praise it because you support the status quo no matter what that is. you weren't from a generation before so you accepted it and the same is true for the current changes - people who grow up with it are going to feel the same way you do about the outdated junk. Solomon is correct. Everything changes so get used to it or you'll end up being that old fart who thinks the youth is crazy. Tradition is stupid too because it values things for no reason other than the fact that they exist in that form. Progress is the only worthwhile avenue, especially since Tradition is doomed inherently.

Anyone remember Mangino changing to the big block letters on the helmet (similar to the OU) to aid in recognition on TV?? He claimed big letters would help set us apart. I guess you actually need to be good enough to consistently get on TV before you can claim the benefits of greater recognition though, huh. The new font won't 'POP' off the helmet, that's for sure!

I am breaking a long standing tradition of my own by commenting in one of these columns. KU is quickly becoming a school to which I cannot maintain much affinity. I agree with most fans that KU's basketball's numbers are unique and classy. If the two sports must be the same, why not use the existing BB font on the FB jerseys? I'd like to know if these uniform decisions were made by anyone who actually attended Kansas University.

The way things are going it won't be long until the athletic departmen sell's the naming rights to Allen Field House? Will anyone object when it is called the Domino's Pizza Kansas Univerisity Basketball Arena?

Once again, people who have nothing to do with sports are screwing it up for everybody else. I "donate" $100 a year to the Williams Educational Fund to "activate" my seating points so they can pay a consulting service $88,000 to pick a FONT to represent MY school??? WHY DON'T THEY LET THE STUDENTS AND ALUMNI DECIDE? We could have voted on it and it would have cost NOTHING.

The block KU letters on the football helmets are AWESOME! They're perfect. They look like college letters. They represent the very essence of the College experience. They look like they belong on a letter jacket.

Not anymore! A bunch of suits decided we have to have a freaking PREFABRICATED FONT represent our teams and school instead. Have you seen the new football jerseys? Oh my god, those jerseys belong in Arena Football or on some pansy Florida football team. THIS IS FOOTBALL! I want the old school BLOCK NUMBERS. Not some weak, swirly looking baseball expansion team numbers! This is not a woman's team! I'm mad!!!

I want to hear from you people! Who's mad? I want to hear some complaints! I want to see some home made signs at Memorial Stadium that say "Hey Lou, Trajan Sucks!" and "Font This!".

Amen droberts1116!!!!! Call them and voice your displeasure. I've now spoken to a couple of merchants who say the new trajan stuff (what they have so far), IS NOT SELLING, nor do they believe it will sell.

The admin. got huckstered out of $90,000 by some corporate fly-by-nighters out of Oregon and now they're trying to put the best face on it by sticking with the design they paid out the ying-yang for. Cut your losses, Bob, Lew, & Jim, and admit it was a dumb thing to do. Just like New Coke 20 years ago. That didn't last long, either.

The new logo sucks. The sooner you admit it, the better, because this is not going to go away.

Regarding jerseys worn for the game Naismith invented. There are 5 college teams, and only 5, who need never change the look of their jersey. I will list them in-reverse order of historical importance: 5. Duke 4. UCLA 3. Carolina 2. Kentucky 1. Kansas

Kansas's tradition disappears because the font changes? While we are at it, why dont the football players go back to wearing leather football helmets and lets have the basketball team wear the short shorts. I'm sorry people, but your arguements just dont make sense. There has to be a good balance between progression and tradition and I believe they have struck a perfect balance. When they change the style of the jayhawk and when we go back to the original KU colors of maize and blue, that is when I'll be concerned, but until then, quit complaining and enjoy they new and exciting progression of KU athletics.

Establish a new brand everyone will recognize??? KU has been around forever!!!! We are the freakin' UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS for chrissakes--the people who mistake us for Kentucky are typically clueless East Coast screwballs who we should care less about!!!! You don't just up and change things after all these years to "establish an identity everyone will regognize"--WE ALREADY HAVE AN IDENTITY!!!!! If people don't recongize the good ol' jayhawk then they are either blind or stupid, or both!! WE DON'T NEED A NEW FONT, plain and simple. The new jersey is a JOKE. Whatever happened to just a jersey with big block letters saying 'KANSAS' across the chest, no name on the back, and a plain number without freakin 'trajan' font, whatever the f*#k that is? Now that's a FOOTBALL uniform! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, jesus!!

It's all fine and dandy for the academic side to adopt a new font, but why screw with athletics?? I mean, seriously!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Eventually this will become a tradition in it's own right and fifty years down the road fans will be able to argue that KU is classic because they still use the same old Trajan font."

Really? Fifty years? I don't think anyone believes these uniforms will last that long. I'd guess 4-5 years, same as all the other recent modifications. The big problem is, the bar has been lowered so much that it doesn't bode well at all for any future variations.

no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no
yet another reason that the current athletics staff has given to reaffirm my abandoning my season tickets

From JBurtin "P.S.S. Anybody complaining about the money spent to license the use of the font obviously hasn't dealt much in the world of graphics......However, in the case of big business the font makers will go after and sue companies that use their fonts without licensing them, and they charge some pretty ridiculous fees for the licensing. Thus the exhorbitant price of $88,000 for a freakin' font."

I work in graphics and I can tell you, JBurtin couldn't be more wrong. You cannot copywrite a font, that's a common misconception. The $88,000 we spent was for a design company to come up with a "branding" system for KU, one that they ripped off from kutztown university. However, KU has one of the best design programs in the country, they could have asked the design department to create a branding system for the university, and it would have been free........ why does no one ever think to use the university resources for university needs?

DocBean- Well said. You know if Hal Sandy would have submitted his design for the current Jayhawk in 2007 rather than in the 1940's, the university would have laughed in his face. They probably would have spent 200,000 for some company in New York to come up with a new Jayhawk design also rather than asking their students to come up with one.

Alright graphic genious Docbean, I'm also a designer. I challenge you to put together the letters K and U in a way that don't look similar to a logo that someone else is already using. There are only so many things you can do to those two letters and still have them be reasonably recognizable and attractive.

The designers were most likely completely unaware that Kutztown university even existed. It's not terribly surprising that someone who went to this little school happened upon the new logo for KU and noticed that they were similar in one respect, it doesn't mean that the designers ripped someone else's work off.

Furthermore, a branding system involves more than just the two letters. The branding of Kutztown has the similarity of the tail of the K going underneath the U and that is just about where the similarities end. The colors, mascot, and general feel of the brand are all completely different.

As for having students design the logo. Sure you could have a contest to design a logo, but there is no guarantee that the winning logo would not directly infringe on someone else's copyright and would therefore be completely unusable. So what would you do then, go to choice two, and if it didn't work, choice three. By the time you were finished having contests to design different parts of the KU identity you would have a conglomeration of many different student's ideas as to what KU should look like, and no clear brand.

I would also challenge the assumption that these designs weren't going to be around for a long time. The current goal of the AD is not to make uniform designs that will last for 4 or 5 years. Small changes will be made in the future, but final decisions are being made on questions such as: what is the official KU blue; what is the official font used on the Jayhawk logo; and what font is used to denote the name Kansas on uniforms.

These decisions are being made to combat the problem of over a hundred years of no clear tradition, and no nationally recognizable brand. I would argue that there is no way the AD is going to try to change these new clear guidelines right after they have just been established.

JBurtin - If you would offer me a quarter of what they put into this branding system I would gladly take your challenge and put together a K and U that didn't infringe on any other schools logo, while representing the university and its heritage, and still looking good on the uniforms.

Now I'm sure as a designer (as you say you are) you understand the realistic expectations I have that a senior level design class could easily pull off such a task without breaking any copywrite laws. I'm a little bit offended that you assume that the professors in charge of the design program, and students themselves are not capable of such a project. Obviously you didn't carry the 3.0 grade average required to carry you through the visual comminications requirements, and are a little hot under the collar.

Now, that whole bit about no clear tradition, or nationally recognizable brand????? are you crazy? KU has one of the most noteably recognizable mascots in the country!

As a designer, and fan of the school, you should know that the official Pantone Crimson and Blue colors have not changed for years. I'm no genius like you say, or I'd be able to name them off. (the red is 200, or 202 i think)

So the only thing left from your list that we needed is an official font - Trajan..... and although it is a classic font, it's not so groundbreaking that a Senior design class could not have done as well. Otherwise, why are they givin such a nice shiny piece of paper with the University's gorgeous logo proclaiming them professionals in the field of visual communications, and that nice marble paper-weight at the end of the year???? I assume they still hand out the chunk 'o marble... I have one on my desk years after I've lost track of the diploma.

Bringing up some load of bull like me being hot under the collar for not holding a high enough GPA is hitting below the belt and completely unfounded. My GPA has been good all the way through school and my arguments have nothing to do with any grudge with the school.

Go eff yourself

I just know what the design department is like. It's not a matter of talent, we have plenty of that at KU. It's a matter of organizing students with no real world experience to do a project with real world, big money implications.

It's not a matter of creating something pretty, any idiot could do that on their home computer. I just don't think that students with a full load of classes have the time to adequately research their designs to make sure that no copyrights are being infringed upon.

You also ascertain that KU has one of the most recognizable mascots in the country. Very true, our mascot is recognizable. But as I stated before, a brand is more than just a mascot. I don't believe for one second that all that this firm did was to pick out a font and a couple of colors. I don't know what all was done for us, but I do know that the people who have written the articles on this subject are journalists, not designers. My guess is that if you knew the truth about what kind of work was done for the school, you probably wouldn't be whining about how much was spent.

The new numbering is bad. They should have come up with something blocky and solid looking, not curvy and wimpy. It should not go on the basketball uniforms either. I don't care for the old ones much either, and I'm not sure what you call traditional because I think it has changed over time. They should go bold, not trajan.

WOW, what a bunch of crap written about something that will be common to us half way through the season. We have no tradtional font or uniform... they change every year. It is a good thing. I like them.

tell the marines they must wear a new updated uniform and change their class A and then see what happens!
first get a first class uniform and stick to it. winning will follow as pride in wearing it will follow.
which track uniform is better the new ones or the 1960,s hot color that everyone recognized as KANSAS!
change is NOT always better.